Cycling 74 MAX 8 Drastically Improves Load and Render Times

New Version out in September 14/08/18

Cycling 74 have previewed some new features of MAX 8 - the programming environment for audio, MIDI and video that works either standalone or inside Ableton Live. Many of the new features are focussed on the user experience with major speed and performance gains over MAX 7.

Most notable are the load times, with up to 3X speed improvements over MAX 7 with larger patches, additionally the refresh rate of the GUI has been improved by up to 2X, for a smoother, more responsive interface.

Additional Improvements:

Max Console - The Max Window is already a popular way to gather information about how your patcher is working. For Max 8 we made a number of improvements to support getting a quick view of just the information you need, when you need it.

Patching Improvements - With enhancements to the way you can organize your objects and inspect information, it's much easier to navigate through and build out your patches.

Vizzie 2 - Previously Vizzie processed video pixels on the CPU, resulting in performance problems with large patches. For Max 8, we’ve updated Vizzie to take full advantage of the processing power of your GPU for a big speed boost. In addition to the improved frame rates, Vizzie now easily integrates with 3D graphics and other work that relies on OpenGL in Jitter.

Node For MAX - Node is a JavaScript framework for software applications. It makes it easy to use web services, whether pulling information from a remote data source or interfacing with a social network. The Node for Max feature lets you do it all from within a Max patcher.

Mappings - Inspired by the intuitive MIDI and Key Map function in Ableton Live, the Max 8 Mappings feature allows you to quickly connect your hardware to your patch without any additional programming.

MAX 8 will be released in September, and presumably these imptovements witll also be available for MAX for Live users in dues course, integrated in to Ableton's LIVE.